alimony = slavery

The dirty truth: Why you are ordered to pay alimony.

2010-02-03T11:41:00.003-05:00

"Alimony, as it currently exists in all state law books is NOT about men versus women. It is about generating revenue for the states and here is how. By the states legislating loosely written alimony guidelines it allows the judge (remember there is no jury here, which is a violation of the 7th Amendment to the US Constitution), unbridled digression. If you are the unfortunate person ordered to pay permanent alimony at a ridiculously high rate and you can’t, you are held in contempt of court and are sentenced to jail. This is NOT a crime. But people go to jail, so that the state can collect $140 per day for each person incarcerated. The state gets the money from the Feds.
In addition, under Title IV-D of the Social Security Act, section 454, the feds reimburse the state for 2/3 the cost of processing and enforcing alimony payments.
So why are we talking here about the gender bias issue? The fact is that it is too easy to get a divorce in this country and the entire alimony scheme is nothing more than the state and the state Bar’s an opportunity to cash in on an unfortunate situation called divorce."

I read the above comment that was posted to a great blog at the Wall Street Journal. I knew that Title IV-D was the social security act that allowed states to get compensated for billing you for child support, but I had no clue that the State got Federal reimbursement for billing you for alimony payments.

If you can get past all the legalese take a read. The guvment puts it out there for the whole world to read. If you can read sections 454, 454a, 454b, and section 455. Section 454a/b lays the foundation, but in section 455 you read how the states are compensated for 2/3rds of any expenditures for the collection of Alimony (and child support). It's like a huge cash cow! And if nothing else this is documented proof that the states have a vested interested in splitting up families and ordering the largest amount of child support and alimony they can.

Sounds a little drastic, but the only way to achieve a divorce settlement with a huge child support/Alimony order is to create a "non-custodial parent." Shared parenting doesn't work because most households are two-income and if you create a 50/50 custody plan, little to no child support could be ordered.

For guys on the brink of divorce, you're stuck. To you non-married guys, you need to take notice and be aware of the trick-bag that the state is setting you up for.

And I thought Florida was bad...

2009-07-15T18:09:00.006-04:00

Here is a case in New Jersey, where the husband is ordered to pay ~$1,000 per month in indefinite alimony (he's also paying about 1k in child support as well) and finds his ex wife has been cohabitating since 2005 with her boyfriend. She also had a baby for the guy. Since the guy is casually attached to the work force, the two of them had been living on the ex husbands alimony and child support checks.

So Mr. Deep pockets goes to court to ask for a modification----and is denied!!??! Stevie Wonder can see how this guy is being taken advantage of. So, he spends the big bucks (20k?) to appeal the decision.

The New Jersey court of appeals rules in his favor--kinda. They reversed and remanded the case back to the lower court for modification of the alimony amount. In other words, they want the lower court to impute an amount of money that the ex wife would be paying to contribute to the boyfriends support and deduct that from the amount Mr. Deep pockets is paying her.

Why not just end the alimony? Obviously she's living her life. Why is this guy compelled to support her in it?

The one thing I like about this case is the guy had the balls to appeal based on the violation of his rights under the 13th amendment to the Constitution.

Here is an excerpt:

"THE TRIAL COURT'S DECISION CONDEMNS DEFENDANT TO AN INDETERMINATE SENTENCE OF INVOLUNTARY SERVITUDE IN VIOLATION OF THE THIRTEENTH AMENDMENT TO THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.

THE TRIAL COURT'S RELIANCE UPON [EX-WIFE'S] TESTIMONY WAS PREJUDICIAL ERROR. [EX-WIFE'S] TESTIMONY WAS PATENTLY FALSE AND SO MANIFESTLY UNSUPPORTED BY CREDIBLE EVIDENCES TO OFFEND THE INTERESTS OF JUSTICE.

THE COHABITATION ARRANGEMENT IN THIS CASE IS THE "FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENT OF A MARRIAGE" REQUIRING TERMINATION OF ALIMONY. TO PROVIDE OTHERWISE IS VIOLATIVE OF PUBLIC POLICY AND PREJUDICIAL ERROR.

(EX-WIFE'S] CONDUCT IN SECRETING HER RELATIONSHIP AND PREGNANCY, WHILE DEMANDING ENFORCEMENT OF THE ALIMONY ORDER, CONSTITUTES "EGREGIOUS AND OUTRAGEOUS"
CONDUCT. IT IS NEITHER FAIR, EQUITABLE NOR JUST TO CONTINUE ALIMONY GIVEN SUCH CONDUCT."

Of course there was no mention of action against the ex wife for hiding the pregnancy and the fact that the boyfriend was living with her (while defending her position to continue to receive alimony). She gets a pass.

These judges are morons.

Read about it here.

You gotta read this....

2009-05-13T11:02:00.001-04:00

OPINION: Mom-In-Chief Says “This Is How We Do It”
By Bill Stephney May 9, 2009 6:06 pm

Happy Mother’s Day, Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama.

Yes, we know that she is the First Lady of our nation. We got that.

She is also a corporate lawyer, with degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law. Understood.

She has become an international fashion icon. Check that box, too.

But, from what we can gather through the somewhat limited lens of public observation, she is most importantly a good mother, a supportive spouse and a respectful daughter. Her success is apparently attributed to a pattern of practical life choices that she has made.

Michelle Obama is basically “Claire Huxtable” on anabolic steroids.

Her exemplary motherhood is a symbol of power. Digesting the “with great power, comes great responsibility” notion, it is in fact Michelle Obama, not her husband, who may serve as the one figure capable of affecting prevailing attitudes and institutional processes as they relate to African-American families (and by logic and extension, all of the nation’s families).

According to a recent Child Trends DataBank report, 69.5% of African-American children are born to an unmarried mother, in comparison to 47.9% of Hispanic children, 25.4% of White children, and 16.2% of Asian/Pacific Islander children. Most Black families with children don’t break up - they never form to begin with.

So, how do we turn around this “Maury Povich” culture of ours? A culture where too many young mothers are encouraged to believe that a child support check isn’t so much a replacement for a husband: It IS a husband to them. And too many young men, facing cultural attitudes that reduce effective male co-parenting as optional to children, are marginalized to the point where their family presence is of little to no consequence. Paging Michelle Obama, Esq.

While the recent record of presidents appointing first ladies to head ambitious initiatives hasn’t been very good (although it may lead to a future Senate career and a competitive death-match for the big job), looking for someone to turn around the environment that has Black children, mothers, fathers and extended family members are now separated from each other at a rate not seen since slavery - Mrs. Obama could be “The One.”

Black Women Who Shaped America

Michelle Obama currently commands a respect from Black folks that has been generally reserved for cherished figures such as Coretta Scott King and Betty Shabazz. Not only did she evidence unflagging support for her husband, notwithstanding the rants of a few cable news loudmouths, she was critical to his success during the election (do we truly believe Barack dominated Black women’s vote during the primary because of his smooth jumper from 15 feet out?). Their daughters, Malia and Sasha conduct themselves with a grace and youthful dignity. She and her brother Craig were raised well on Chicago’s South Side by her parents, Marian and Fraser Robinson. According to a 2008 New York Times piece, Michelle loved her father so much “that she would curl up in his lap even as an adult.”

And how fantastic is it to have Grandma Marian around the White House today, for extended family support?

2010 will be the 45th Anniversary of the U.S. Department of Labor’s report “Crisis of the Negro Family.” In short, the federal government’s report focused on the historical devastation that so wrecked African-American family, and community structure:

At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family…It was by destroying the Negro family under slavery that white America broke the will of the Negro people. Although that will has reasserted itself in our time, it is a resurgence doomed to frustration unless the viability of the Negro family is restored.

President-Elect Obama should consider recruiting the First Lady-Elect to use her popularity by having her supervise a re-examination of the report’s findings, along with providing a current assessment of the critical issues that have so divided many families, such as the high out-of-wedlock birthrate, and radically fatherless African-American neighborhoods.

So on this Mother’s Day, I wish to thank my own mother, Estelle, for her lifetime dedication to being a wondrous parent and beautiful spirit; to my wife, Tanya, for her loving commitment to our children (as well as putting up with this writer…); and to Michelle Obama, for showing us that good motherhood is not about selfishly “having it all” — it is about a unflagging loyalty to family, to community, and to our nation, as a whole.

Bill Stephney head of Joseph Media, has previously run music companies Def Jam Recordings, SOUL Records and Stepsun Music. He has produced artists ranging from Public Enemy to Vanessa Williams and Paul Mooney. He has supervised music for films such as “Boomerang,” “Be Be’s Kids,” “CB4,” “Clockers” and “Shaft.” In 2006, he was elected to Minority Media & Telecommunications Hall of Fame. Currently, he is a featured essayist in the book “Be A Father To Your Child: Real Talk From Black Men On Family, Love and Fatherhood” (Soft Skull Press). He lives in New Jersey with his wife Tanya, and their three children. Stephney also serves as a member in that state’s division of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Child Support Abuse

2009-02-09T10:20:00.002-05:00

I know raising children is expensive, but does it really cost $10,000,000?

That's what the now suffering comedian Eddie Murphy has agreed to pay his baby-momma, Melanie Brown (Scary Spice). It's no secret that Eddie had a fling with the former Spice Girl after his gold digger wife stuck him for mega bucks after their divorce. And yes, when you make a baby, the baby needs pampers and day care.....But $10,000,000?!?!? WTF!

..and another one.

2009-01-28T07:17:00.003-05:00

This article is from The Star. It's some newspaper in Canada. I thought I had it bad. Read this...

by: Susan Pigg

Wayne Tippett has just two things of any real value left in his life: a 10-year-old car and a granite tombstone.

At 51, Tippett is broken, bankrupt and bunking in the guest room of his parents' Burlington home after a divorce settlement that's left him $75,000 in debt and racking up $1,000 more each month.

Today, he'll appear in court at a default hearing to try to explain why he can't afford to pay his ex-wife (the couple had no children) $3,300 a month, $16,000 in retroactive alimony and $42,000 of her court costs out of a complex case he himself still doesn't understand.

Even his ex-wife's lawyer calls the situation "a total tragedy." And while he says Tippett "is paying for his own foolishness and stubbornness," the settlement is, in many ways, a frightening example of bad timing, lack of adequate information, and a divorce court system that can be deadly unpredictable.

"You're absolutely insane if you want to go into the (divorce) court system," says London, Ont., family law lawyer Peter Eberlie, who represented Tippett's ex-wife Darlene Cormier, also 51. "Any court case is Russian roulette."

A detailed Star examination of court transcripts, as well as interviews with both parties' lawyers and some of Canada's leading divorce lawyers, shows why family law lawyers have been pressing the Ontario government to devote more court resources "up front" to pre-trial case and settlement conferences aimed at helping warring couples reach a fair settlement quickly and without the ruinous legal fees of a lengthy court battle.

"I think most family law lawyers now regard going to court as a failure, of both them and their clients. A failure to be reasonable," says Philip Epstein, one of Canada's most respected divorce lawyers.

Cormier refuses to discuss the case, other than to say she's "struggling for survival," and didn't expect to have to hire a lawyer and revisit an agreement on alimony payments the high school sweethearts had reached in 2003 – almost two years after their separation and 26 years together.

Every day that Tippett, a highly specialized Xerox technician, wakes up in the spare room he shares with three Cabbage Patch dolls and a teddy bear Mountie, he is falling further into a black hole. Since last April, he has been on disability leave because of medical problems he says have been brought on by the stress of the case, which means his $90,000 a year in salary and commissions is now significantly less. While Cormier is now getting just over $2,000 a month of his disability pay, technically Tippett is on the hook for $3,300, so each month his arrears are climbing.

"I've been given a life sentence and she's been given a cash for life ticket," says Tippett. "I actually asked my lawyer at one point, `Isn't there a human rights issue here? Don't I have the human right to have a life after divorce?'"

In a desperate act to protect what little he says he has left, Tippett admits that he disregarded a judge's order to make his ex-wife the beneficiary on an old insurance policy and used the $11,000 to pre-arrange his own funeral, buy a family headstone and have his name etched on it.

"Darlene won't bury me, and I don't want my family to have to pay for that. But I'm afraid the FRO (Family Responsibility Office) will seize the stone."

In fact, things might have turned out much differently had Tippett known that family law had undergone some dramatic changes in the time since his separation. Had anyone simply pointed him to familylawcentre.com where he could do the math himself, Tippett might have realized he was at serious risk the minute he stepped into court.

Cormier and Tippett met in Grade 8 math class and by 16 had fallen love. They both quit school in Grade 10, although Tippett would later get a college diploma at night, and married in 1981. She was the love of his life.

"I believe in marriage," he says, breaking down recalling how soothing it was to come home at night to hear the sound of Cormier's flute wafting out the window of their home.

"I took my wedding vows word for word – till death do you part. I thought I'd take my last breath looking into her eyes."

Cormier's lawyer maintains Tippett was controlling and content to have his wife dabble at home-based craft and music businesses that never earned much money. Tippett disagrees, saying he offered to help put her through school, pay for her to go overseas to study music, in hopes she could start earning a living.

None of that really matters now. Under Canada's "no fault" divorce system it's irrelevant who fell out of love first, or that Tippett voluntarily offered to move out and pay Cormier $2,145 a month to cover the mortgage and other expenses until they could work out a formal agreement. By November 2003, they had a deal for splitting assets and $2,300 a month in support, to be reviewed in three years.

Cormier would eventually buy a three-bedroom home kitty-corner to the matrimonial home and Tippett, with little left by the time debts were paid, rented rooms in hopes that the support would be reduced to, say, $1,400, in three years.

"We were 42 when we separated. I thought by 45 I would be starting all over again, that I'd be able to get a little condo, that she'd be on her feet," says Tippett. "I had no intention of leaving her high and dry. I knew I would always have to support her in some way."

Tippett kept writing cheques for $2,300, but the couple failed at every attempt to reach a deal. He says he was "shocked" last January to find himself in the middle of a two-day trial, with his ex-wife citing a litany of health issues – from fibromyalgia to the circulatory problem Reynauds syndrome – that, her doctor testified, made it impossible for her to work full-time. Even her 22-hour a week job at an antique market was proving to be a hardship, Cormier testified, acknowledging that she took a quarter to a half an Advil a few times a week to deal with chronic pain.

What Tippett didn't realize is that since the couple's 2003 agreement, a revolutionary set of "spousal support guidelines," along with significant new case law, was now firmly taking hold in divorce settlements.

The guidelines – one aimed at childless couples, the other for those with children – were meant to bring some consistency and predictability to divorcing spouses, especially women emerging from "traditional" long-term relationships who were unlikely to find decent-paying jobs after years at home.

In fact, the guidelines added up to a sort of "65 rule" – that if the partner's age and years in the relationship equalled 65 or more, the main breadwinner would be paying "permanent support" the rest of his or her life.

"The view now about marriage is that (both) parties are entitled, to the extent possible, to enjoy the same lifestyle after a long-term marriage," says Epstein, who sat on the committee that took five years to draft the guidelines. "We operate on a system that, if you create economic dependency (even if the wife isn't tied to the home caring for children), then you're going to have to redress it."

At the same time, judges were being much more aggressive in not just reviewing "time-limited" settlements but, in essence, going back to square one – looking at income, past support and setting new payments, as happened in Tippett's case.

In fact, during last January's court case, Cormier's lawyer accused Tippett of getting "one heck of a deal" compared to the new guidelines. Ontario Superior Court Justice Grant Campbell clearly agreed, not only boosting Tippett's alimony payments by $1,000 a month in his ruling last March, but making them retroactive to November 2006 and ordering him to pay Cormier's $42,000 court costs.

Facing massive legal bills of his own, Tippett filed for bankruptcy and it was only later, he says, he discovered he's still on the hook, under bankruptcy laws, for any payments related to the divorce case.

That's left Tippett in arrears that are growing monthly, on the default list of Ontario's controversial Family Responsibility Office and facing seizure of his driver's licence, his passport and, in time, a possible jail sentence.

Tippett says he knew "the whole world had flipped" the minute he left the courtroom last January.

"I was suicidal when I realized that I was going to lose. All I could see was black. I went home to my room and I cleaned things up. I was going to kill myself. No one knew what I was going through," says Tippett.

Except his mother, who could see it on his face.

"Sometimes I still worry when he's driving," she says now. "Wayne just spoiled Darlene to death, he loved her so much. Now it's ruined his life."

Even Tippett's Toronto lawyer, John Freeman, has been stunned at the turn of events.

"It's always easy to say, `This is what the law is,' but up until that time (the January alimony review) the law wasn't quite so clear. The spousal support guidelines did not exist when the original (2003) agreement was drawn up so, to a certain extent, Wayne is being pilloried retroactively.

"I can't say that Wayne's expectations (of a reduction in alimony) were unrealistic," says Freeman. "I thought he had a very good shot at reducing the amount. I didn't see an increase was going to be coming, to be very frank. Was it possible? Yes, but I didn't think that was a likely outcome."

Why do we hear almost nothing about this?

2009-01-27T12:25:00.002-05:00

It seems like every time I tell someone about the horror that awaits 60% of the men in this country (in family court), they don't believe me. They say, "If this were true, where are the protesters? People would be marching in the streets!!" I almost never know how to answer this. They're right. People should be protesting in the streets. For the answer see the article below.

One of my favorite authors, Mr. Stephen Baskerville recently published a new article entitled

"Divorced from Reality: “We’re from the Government, and We’re Here to End Your Marriage.”

Here is an excerpt:

Generated Hysteria

Why do we hear almost nothing about this? Aside from media that sympathize with the divorce revolution, the multi-billion-dollar divorce industry also commands a huge government-funded propaganda machine that has distorted our view of what is happening.

The growth of the divorce machinery during the 1970s and 1980s did not follow but preceded (in other words, it generated) a series of hysterias against parents—especially fathers—so hideous and inflammatory that no one, left or right, dared question them or defend those accused: child abuse and molestation, wife-beating, and nonpayment of “child support.” Each of these hysterias has been propagated largely by feminists, bar associations, and social work bureaucracies, whose federal funding is generously shared with state and local law-enforcement officials.

The parent on the receiving end of such accusations—even in the absence of any formal charge, evidence, or conviction—not only loses his children summarily and often permanently; he also finds himself abandoned by friends and family members, parishioners and pastors, co-workers and employers (and he may well lose his job)—all terrified to be associated with an accused “pedophile,” “batterer,” or “deadbeat dad.”

It is not clear that these nefarious figures are other than bogeymen created by divorce interests, well aware that not only the public generally but conservatives and family advocates in particular are a soft touch when it comes to anything concerning irresponsible behavior or sexual perversion.

Christians are especially vulnerable to credulity about such accusations, because they are disposed to see moral breakdown behind social ills. Moral breakdown certainly does lie behind the divorce epidemic (of which more shortly), but it is far deeper than anything addressed by cheap witch-hunts against government-designated malefactors.

It is also largely credulity and fear that leads Congress by overwhelming majorities to appropriate billions for anti-family programs in response to these hysterias. The massive federal funds devoted to domestic violence, child abuse, and child-support enforcement are little more than what Phyllis Schlafly calls “feminist pork,” taxpayer subsidies on family dissolution that also trample due process protections. Family law may technically be the purview of states, but it is driven by federal policies and funded by a Congress fearful of accusations that it is not doing enough against pedophiles, batterers, and deadbeats.

In fact, each of these figures is largely a hoax, a creation of feminist ideology disseminated at taxpayers’ expense and unchallenged by journalists, academics, civil libertarians, and family advocates who are either unaware of the reality or cowed into silence. Indeed, so diabolical are these hysterias that some family advocates simply accept them as additional evidence of the family crisis.

But while sensational examples can be found of anything, there is simply no evidence that the family and fatherhood crisis is caused primarily or even significantly by fathers abandoning their families, beating their wives, and molesting their children. Irrefutable evidence indicates that it is driven almost entirely by divorce courts forcibly separating parents from their children and using these false accusations as a rationalization.

It's a little long, but worth it. Click the link above for the entire article.

HORRIFIC! - A Florida appeal court overturns alimony.

2009-01-22T20:20:00.002-05:00

This guy finally gets out of paying alimony...somewhat..the case was remanded back to the trial court. Taking a case to appeal can cost upwards of 20K!! or more. Most people (like me) are out of money long before that.

Palm Beach County judge's hard-fought alimony victory may help other divorced people

By JANE MUSGRAVE

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

WEST PALM BEACH — Palm Beach County Circuit Judge David French on Wednesday won his decade-old battle over paying his ex-wife alimony - a victory that ultimately could help other divorced people who are supporting ex-spouses living with new loves.

Saying a three-year-old state law gives courts the ability to reduce alimony payments to those who are in "supportive relationships" with new people, the Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled that French shouldn't be forced to pay $3,400 a month to his ex-wife who has lived with another man for roughly 20 years.

"Here, the former wife has been living with another man with all the trappings of a marriage, without the formal legality of one, for longer than she was married to the former husband," Judge Melanie May wrote in an opinion joined by two other judges.

Neither Gayle French nor her attorneys could be reached for comment on whether they plan to appeal.

But, if the ruling stands, French will be able to go back to court and ask a judge to terminate, or at least reduce, the alimony that has cost him $40,800 annuallly since 1993. Because he is a Palm Beach County judge, the case will be heard by Broward County Circuit Judge Arthur Berkin.

French applauded the appeals court decision, saying it clarifies the impact of a law the legislature passed in 2005 as a way to promote families. Allowing people to continue to collect alimony as long as they didn't remarry encouraged them to live together instead of tying the knot, then-Gov. Jeb Bush said when he signed the legislation.

The measure was a year old when French asked Palm Beach County Circuit Judge Jack Cook to free him from the alimony payments that were ordered as part of his 1988 divorce. He argued that the net worth of his ex-wife had soared from $97,000 to $900,000 and that she was, for all practical purposes, married to the man she began dating in 1987.

Cook agreed that Gayle French was in a "supportive relationship," but declined to reduce the alimony payments that had been clipped from $4,000 to $3,400 monthly in 1993.

Originally, the appeals court upheld Cook's opinion. But French and his attorney Amy Shields asked for a rehearing based, in part, on a dissenting opinion appellete Judge Gary Farmer wrote in a case that also turned on the interpretation of the new law.

"Why should the law require that a previously married person be supported by two separate members of the opposite sex: one from whom she is divorced and one with whom she is cohabiting," Farmer asked in his opinion in which he supported cutting off alimony to a woman who was living with a new man.

Shield said she wished the appeals court had adopted Farmer's view. But, she said, Wednesday's opinion goes a long way toward clarifying the law.

It is likely the Florida Supreme Court will eventually weigh in.

"It's a very hot issue in family law," Shield said. "It effects so many people across the board."

Alec Baldwin...Men's Rights Activist?

2008-12-01T09:37:00.002-05:00

Alec Baldwin asked the exec's at NBC to release him from his commitment to 30 Rock so he could devote the coming year to taking a stand against Parental Alienation Syndrome (PAS) and the injustices that face Men in our "just-us" system.

After a 9 year marriage to Kim Basinger (Vicki Vale from Batman), Alec and Kim split and spent 3 million dollars in attorney fee's for the divorce and child custody battle.

Alec uses tons of ink in his book "A Promise to Ourselves", where he laments the fractured relationship he has with his daughter and the crap that Kim took him through after their divorce.

Now is the time for Alec Baldwin (and Hulk Hogan, Paul McCartney, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Danny Bonaduce, Bill Murray, Tom Arnold, and a host of others) to speak on the huge settlements that they have to pay to get out of abusive, loveless marriages.

..i don't believe it myself, but....

2008-10-14T02:36:00.002-04:00

At a recent Mens Rights Activist meeting I attended, a new batch of inductees were introducing themselves by laying out their experience with the courts. The stories were typical. Ex wives that....that had become these emboldened monsters who were willing to do and say things in court and to the police that was so far from the truth, that these men still couldn't believe that they had at one time shared a bed and a life with them. Women who would claim in court that their men were violent abusers that had them shaking in fear and raping the children. Women that were willing to keep their men away from the children...forever.

If it were not for my own experience with divorce, I wouldn't believe it either. I'd be like Joe Biden.

..and yet another Family Court sponsored Murder/Suicide.

2008-09-03T13:29:00.002-04:00

FROM THE ATHENS BANNER-HERALD

Couple's legal fight ends in their deaths
Deadly turn in divorce
By Joe Johnson | joe.johnson@onlineathens.com | Story updated at 11:12 pm on 8/22/2008

A divorcing Athens couple attended a court-ordered mediation session hours before the man killed his wife and committed suicide.

Dale Owen Cook used an aluminum baseball bat to beat 44-year-old Tracy Beaulieu Cook in the bedroom of their home in the Forest Heights subdivision off Oglethorpe Avenue, according to Athens-Clarke police.

The 45-year-old United Parcel Service driver then shot himself with a revolver, police said.

Police publicly named the victims Friday morning, after family members had been notified.

Tracy Cook's death is the first murder this year in Athens-Clarke County.

The couple married in 2002, and Tracy Cook, a Publix cashier, filed for divorce in February.

Her husband was contesting the divorce, and last month a Clarke County Superior Court judge voided a prenuptial agreement in which Tracy Cook waived alimony and rights to the house the couple shared at 284 Tara Way, among other assets, court documents show.

Three months earlier, the judge granted the woman temporary alimony and joint possession of the couple's house, and ordered Dale Cook to "deliver any guns in the household to his father" while the divorce was pending.

The judge last week ordered the couple to attend mediation to try and resolve their disputes, according to court records.

The Cooks attended a mediation session Thursday morning at the Alternative Dispute Resolution Office in the Clarke County Courthouse.

Dale Cook called his supervisor shortly after 4 p.m. to say he wouldn't be working that night, and that he'd beaten his wife with a bat, but didn't know if she was alive or dead, according to a police report.

Soon after, he called his wife's lawyer, Debra Finch, to say that Tracy Cooper was dead, Finch said in an interview Friday.

The UPS supervisor and Finch both called 911, and officers broke through the front door of the couple's westside home and found them both dead, police said.
Though Dale Cook was contesting the divorce terms, he gave no signs he would turn violent, according to Finch, who represented Tracy Cook in the divorce.

"I spent a lot of time with Tracy yesterday morning and talked to her several times on the phone in the afternoon," she said Friday. "When I last saw her she was in good spirits despite the difficulty of the divorce. She never saw this coming."

The couple had no history of violence, according to police, and Finch said physical abuse was not an issue in the divorce.

"None of us saw this coming - it's devastating," Finch said. "(Tracy) was a good person and I am deeply saddened and shocked by her death."

The Cooks are each survived by children from previous marriages.

These guys are riding for US!

2008-08-19T15:49:00.002-04:00

I want to give a GREAT BIG shout out to Gene Floyd! He and his two son's are pedaling bicycles, coast-to-coast to raise awareness about the importance of Fathers. Starting on the east coast in New York, Gene, Stefan, and Joshua have made it all the way to the midwest and are recording every mile on Gene's "Ride for Fatherhood" website. Complete with over 3,500 pictures, Gene blogs daily about the trip and the incredible experience he's having with his boys. This kind of trip is a once in a lifetime thing, and showcases the kind of love a Dad has for his kids.

Gene's story has appeared in local newspapers, and television stations all along their route and talks about what fatherhood is all about and the unfortunate marginalization that many Fathers are having to endure in our nations courts.

If you have a minute, stop by Gene's site, send him an email of encouragement, and if your so moved, drop him a paypal dollar or two. He and the boys are roughing it, often in sleeping bags and hammocks. Just trying to keep up with failing equipment has been a drain on their finances. Since Gene and the boy's are at the midway point, and the looming rockies are at least a month away, lets all pledge a little to help them make it to the California shore!

...they came, and I did nothing.

2008-07-18T13:56:00.001-04:00

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the communists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me -
and by then there was no one left to speak out for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller

Another divorce court tragedy

2008-07-08T08:07:00.002-04:00

"OAKLAND, Calif. - A prominent software programmer who had denied having anything to do with his estranged wife's disappearance even after he was convicted of her murder led police Monday to what is believed to be her body, defense attorneys said."

Yep. Another Family court murder.

While I don't condone violence in response to the horror of what happens in Family court, a least twice a month I read about someone else who thinks otherwise.

The sad part is (and it always is) you have to read all the way to the end of the news story to see, "The two were involved in a bitter custody dispute."

Letter to the author of "You have two hours with your daughter"

2008-06-10T10:37:00.003-04:00

I wrote the following letter to Maximillian Potter, the author of "You have two hours with your daughter", a special report in "Best Life" magazine. The article explores the recent proliferation of parental "visitation centers," where men accused of domestic violence are ordered to "visit" their children. It's a great article, and a must read for any one willing to peak into what's driving the divorce industry.

Mr. Potter,

I enjoyed your article in Best Life magazine and wondered if you had read Stephen Baskerville's book "Taken Into Custody." Mr. Baskerville explores the Family Court system's methodical attack on the family and more specifically the "dad". Fueled by federal incentive dollars like the Violence Against Women's Act, and acting in concert with the plethora of friend of the court types (guardian ad litem's, court mandated psychologists, etc), our courts have eviscerated the middle class man with permanent alimony orders and child support obligations that are aimed solely at separating the breadwinner from his money.

Mr. Baskerville alleges that there is a very real conspiracy at work that models itself on the racketeering that was the real communism, and Nazi's beginnings that advocated a "best interest of the child" mantra. The eventual reality was that after the familial bond was dissolved the state would take over and perform the duties of the "dad". We can see some of the realities of this with a 50+ percent divorce rate and the sky rocketing numbers of single parent households. While on its face, these things seem to only signify the demise of the "leave it to beaver household", the truth is that the "dad" is marginalized and reduced to a monthly check. A check that typically ends up in a lawyers pocket. How else can we explain that after the 70's dictum of no fault divorces that a middle class divorce costs $50,000...or more? How is its that after a divorce, Dad's are ordered to pay 50, 60, and 70% of their after tax income to someone they have no relationship with. Sometimes in support of children they never see, or even worse, children that aren't even their's.

A blind man can see that none of this benefits anyones children. Study after study repeats that the majority of violent criminals are from single parent households, yet our courts (and the sycophant legislature) continue to engender the demise of the dad for the benefit of the state.

Your article was breath of fresh air. More often then not, articles like yours are slanted by the biases of a feminist/misandrist dominated media, where men are typically depicted at violent, sex crazed, idiots. Please keep them coming.

Thanks,
"Me"

Sign the Petition Non-Custodial Parental Rights

2008-06-03T09:48:00.001-04:00

http://www.petitiononline.com/usncpr/petition.html

2008-05-29T14:39:00.001-04:00

ALIMONY = SLAVERY
Get this custom shirt at Zazzle

update lacking

2008-05-27T18:23:00.002-04:00

I'm not in jail.

Although my ex's atty keeps filing motions trying to send me there, the judge has had the presence of mind not to order it. My atty stepped up and put enough meat on the table that the judge figured he needed to hear it all out before sending me to the clink. So, I'm not in jail yet.

My ex's atty belongs on Judge Judy. She abandoned arguing the case from a legal point of view and files motion after motion saying I'm acting "in bad faith" and trying to undermine my arguments with bafflement. The judge remarked in our last courtroom drama that he had never even heard of one of her motions and could she explain it. The sad part is that he's so gender biased that he's willing to entertain this BS.

So, long story short...I'm still in the battle ($$$ meter running). Next court date is in July.

Proof that child support is a sham....

2008-04-29T11:58:00.001-04:00

"The gravy train is so rife with such temptations it might appear to have been created for that purpose. In fact, this is precisely what it was. It turns out that the creator of the child-support system used in most jurisdictions is also the founder and primary owner of the nation's largest private collection company which directly profits from the system. Dr. Robert Williams was a paid consultant with HHS from 1983 to 1990 where he helped establish federally-driven uniform child-support guidelines that significantly increased obligations, according to James Johnston, a member of the Kansas Child Support Guidelines Advisory Committee. One year after joining HHS and the same year the mandatory federal guidelines were created, Williams started Policy Studies Inc. (PSI). Like the federal, state, and local bureaucracies that employ him, Williams has an interest not only in making the child-support levels as high as possible to increase his share of the take, but also in making them so high that they create arrears for him to collect. In short, he has a financial incentive to create as many "deadbeat dads" as possible."

American Spectator online edition, 20 August 1999.

Beating Up on "Deadbeat Dads"
By Stephen Baskerville
American Spectator

freedom....without agitation?

2008-04-27T18:11:00.002-04:00

"Those who profess to favor freedom, yet deprecate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightening. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will."

– Frederick Douglass, African-American abolitionist

On a personal note....

2008-04-18T19:03:00.002-04:00

You know how people touch bases with you and ask "how ya doin?" I got that today from a cousin of mine. I replied, "kinda like the eye of the storm." Everything is fine...for now.

I've been waiting for the results of my last court escapade.

Well, the results are in. The last battle left me giving my ex 53% of my take home pay. We went to court to try and get a stay pending the appeal. I thought we waged a good battle. I was wrong. Can you believe the judge changed all the numbers around (alimony/child support) and now he wants me to pay her $100 MORE per month then before!!!!

If someone told me that this is where I'd be, a year ago, I wouldn't believe them. My attorney doesn't believe the results either. She said that the judge is nuts or he just hates me. Either way, neither she nor I know what to do next.

There's no way I can pay the mortgage on the house and give her that much of my income. Everyone knows this, so what exactly are they trying to accomplish? What did I do so wrong to deserve this? All I did was get married! She left to become a lesbian. DID I MAKE HER A LESBIAN?!???

2008-03-24T15:44:00.002-04:00

THIS IS A MUST SEE!!

Part 1

Part 2

2008-03-24T09:15:00.001-04:00

Can you believe this?

Angry and selfish

2008-03-19T14:48:00.003-04:00

A recent commenter accused me of being angry and selfish, and even intimated that I ride a thin line of potential violence and even went as far as to say I would hurt my kids.

Let me state categorically, that I am angry. Extremely angry.

When I first read the comment, I objected. I even started to write that I wasn't angry, and even sought the words to justify my objection. Me? Angry? The guy who laughs with his kids, who my friends ask, "how do you do it?

But the commenter was right.

I'm angry that our corrupt government and various hangers-on would steal my children, take the food from my table, plunder my assets, and extort the balance of my income for the rest of my life.

I'm angry that our judiciary exists not to dispense justice, but to line the pockets of their cronies, who wait for their turn at bat to do the same for the next crop of attorneys.

I'm angry at the feminists who hate men, who would create a society where my son has to be ashamed of his maleness.

I'm angry at the police who would keep you from your kids, evict you from your home, crush your career, and jail you....all in the name of 'just doing my job.'

I'm angry at our elected officials who ignore the needs of their electorate in favor of the steady stream of lobbyist dollars.

I'm angry at the collection agency profiteers who prey on the dads struggling to feed themselves as they send the lions share of their wages to baby-momma's who use the money for designer clothes and luxury vehicles.

I'm angry that we as a people have been subjugated and don't even know it.

I'm angry that despite being told all my life that my education couldn't be taken from me, I've found that that is not true. The judge told me that because I had a college degree, that I 'owed' my ex wife alimony. My degree. The one that I worked two and three jobs to earn. The one that I stayed up late into the night studying for, I now owed the product of, to someone else.

I don't care if 'anger' isn't politically correct. I believe that more of us need to be angry.

And one last thing....I'm not selfish. Just angry.

Money...

2008-03-17T09:18:00.002-04:00

If you don't have some spectacular sports talent, or happen to win the lottery, and you want to make large money....there are three guaranteed ways to get rich and they are;

1. The drug war
2. The gender war
3. The Iraq war

Participation (legal or otherwise) on any side of these conflicts is guaranteed to get you paid.

Single Parent Households = bad

2008-03-08T01:22:00.002-05:00

Did you know that Saddam Husein was raised in a single parent household? Considered one of the most sadistic murderer/torturers of the 20th century, Saddam engineered the killings of thousands of people. Many, he did himself.

Saddam was taught the trade by his mothers boyfriend. His mother was no prize either, as she had abandoned Saddam on at least two occasions before he was 10 years old.

Children need both parents.

Florida House Bill 453 - 2008

2008-03-06T09:53:00.001-05:00

To read the bill, click here.

Florida alimony law's being challenged!!!

2008-03-06T09:28:00.002-05:00

Finally, one of the most alimony oppressive states in the nation may be reconsidering how alimony is computed.

Florida House Bill 453, currently in committee seeks to allow the judiciary to consider the income of the person an obligee (someone who gets alimony) lives with when deciding how much alimony to award!!

What does this mean? If your ex lives with someone whom they are not married to, but enjoys the benefit of their income, that income may be considered by the judge when deciding how much alimony YOU pay!!!

THIS IS HUGE!!! Before this, your ex wife could move in with her boyfriend (or girlfriend) live rent free and the judge would stick his/her head in the sand, and award your ex full alimony/child support anyway. You can imagine the huge disparity in living arrangement. You get to live in a studio apartment, while your ex and her lover live (on your dime) in a four bedroom house.

If this were the law in my state, I wouldn't be on the hook for alimony AT ALL!!!!

Yeah!!!

2008-03-04T10:11:00.003-05:00

I guess you can deduce from this post that I'm not in jail. It was close, and my ex and her [expletive] attorney had expressed jail time as their primary goal, but this time MY attorney was a bulldog. She rocked.

This was supposed to be a hearing based solely on the motions at hand. No new testimony. But it became super obvious that the judge hadn't read a single motion, or even reviewed his own Memorandum of Order in the case. So, despite repeated objection on the part of my ex's atty, we basically had to try the issue all over again. The judge listened to two hours of testimony, and decided there was enough meat on the table to digest it all later. So...no trip to the pokey.

It took me a little while (and I'm still trying) to comprehend how, even though she left me to become a lesbian, trashed our marriage and will get the lions share of the marital assets, she would want me in jail? I am still the father of her children. The emotional, and financial devastation that would result is incalculable. Maybe she's just evil.

Anyway, I was able to kiss my kids goodnight, and I slept in my own bed. Life is good. I wish I could say the same for the thousands of other Men's Rights Activists (MRA's), alleged deadbeats, and victims of alimony extortion, that populate our jails.

Did anyone see the report (on CNN?) that said 1% of the entire United States is locked up? And that we have more people (per capita) incarcerated then any other nation in the world?

I read somewhere else that as much at 30% of those people are there related to an issue from "family court!" Soon, it will be common for kids on the play ground to compare notes about whose daddy is locked up.

That's all for now. Gotta earn a living.

..and the winner is?!!

2008-03-02T20:14:00.002-05:00

This could be my last post for awhile.

Tomorrow, I have contempt of court hearing that could potentially land me in jail. Six months ago, I was ordered to pay my ex over 53% of my take home pay in alimony. Despite the fact making a single payment would send my house into foreclosure and my three kids and I would be tossed out into the street. I motioned the court to place an injunction on the order, pending a resolution in the Maryland Special Court of Appeals. The judge denied the motion. So, now my ex wife is suing me for contempt (non-payment of the order). As luck would have it, tomorrow I go before the same judge. I'm sure he'll be tickled pink, knowing that not only did I contest his order, but I've 'refused' to follow it.

The penalty is an indefinite period of incarceration.

I will lose my job, my house, and eventually my kids. I have a sneaky suspicion that that was the goal anyway. Unfortunately for the court, my ex and I had resolved the custody question before we got to court, but not the alimony question. The fact that I retained 50 percent of the custody of my children goes against the grain in family court. Women are supposed to get custody. By making me destitute, my ex will be able to ask (and get) "temporary" full custody. Then, most assuredly, I'll be on the hook for full child support, wage garnishment, and left at the mercy of all the police powers of the state.

You're asking, why would the state care? .....Title IV-d monies.

Title IV-d provides each state with millions of federal incentive dollars to find, prosecute, and seize the assets of anyone in their state that pays child support. Those federal dollars go to third party "collection contractors," and state budgets. The fed's will pay $2 for every $1 collected from a "payor" regardless of weather the payor is current in his/her obligation or not. The money also lines the pockets of any number of politico's and their hangers-ons. So, there is a HUGE incentive to get any and everybody into the child support matrix. I had been lucky enough to not have to pay my child support through the system. I'm pretty sure thats going to change now.

For a more detailed explanation, read Stephen Baskerville's book, "Taken Into Custody."

Wish me luck.

Stephen Baskerville on Family Court

2008-02-28T23:45:00.002-05:00

Make sure you view this one. Stephen Baskerville is becoming the foremost authority on the Family Court racket. Here, he talks about the billion dollar child support/divorce/judiciary, that is enslaving America for the benefit of a class of people who can take your children, sell your home, rob you of all your assets, force to work a certain job, and turn over that income (sometimes for the rest of your life) to another person, or the state, and finally incarcerate you. These people have declared themselves above the law. The time to act is now.

....and your latest custody related murder.

2008-02-25T07:46:00.002-05:00

NY Mom Arrested After 3 Kids Found Dead

And the LAST line of the story.....

"Jewell's father, Ricky Ward, said that he had tried to get custody of her but that child welfare officials had rebuffed him. The father of the two boys said something similar."

When are these supposed friends of the court going to get it? Children need TWO parents!!

2008-02-20T16:44:00.001-05:00

What is alimony?

2008-02-16T21:18:00.006-05:00

I'm amazed at the the number of women (and men) who actually believe that alimony is justified. Actually, I'm not that amazed. It seems that the same people who believe that men should pay for every "date" also seem to believe that alimony is justified. Somehow, alimony=chivalry. So if you believe that it's right for a man to pay for every "date", then of course alimony makes sense. After all, if men are responsible for women (whatever the situation may be) then alimony is simply an extension of that. Don't get me wrong, I'm as chivalrous as the next guy. I love the little half grin that women give when I open the door for them.

I was raised in the 70's. It was a new era for women. "Women's Lib." Remember that? A freshly divorced 'Maude' was on TV. There was a huge push for passing the ERA, women were shouting in the streets for equality.

Today, it would seem that women are equal. They outnumber men in college, they compete effectively for the same jobs that men do. The secretary of state is a woman. The democratic nomination is being contested by a woman. Women are doing some great things.

Why then are women still thought of to be dependent upon men?

Is this me?

2008-02-15T15:37:00.002-05:00

Recently I opened up this blog to family and friends. For the last two months, its kinda been anonymous.

For some reason no one seems to believe that I'm the one writing the entries to this blog. I must have gotten 10 phone calls and half as many emails from folks who've asked, "are you this...Optimist?" Or, "which one of those entries did 'you' write?"

Folks...I wrote them all! And yes, its "ME."

Am I a winer?

2008-02-14T12:43:00.003-05:00

I spent a little time reviewing my posts to this blog, and got to wondering if I'm being perceived as a "winer." Given the pressure cooker that I've been living in regarding the divorce and alimony proceedings I concede that I've used this blog to vent. However, my mission is really to solicit social change. Knowledge is power. The longer that men like me keep this thing private, and "suck it up" the way society has conditioned us, then we alone are to blame for this condition.

By putting my story on the internet, I've joined a plethora of men who have begun to document what actually happens to people caught in the rip tide of divorce. It may not happen in my generation, but it will happen. Change gonna' come.

Please leave me a comment. Let me know how you or someone you know are affected. Your comments are completely anonymous.

Celia....my new hero.

2008-02-13T11:12:00.002-05:00

Celia Says:
February 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
"there is no justification for alimony, except contractual. The rationale for alimony (and property distribution) lies in the notions of equity. Equity in any other realm is based upon measurable contribution per se – not perceived nor claimed “need”. In other words, you can’t go before a judge and say well if I wasn’t nice to my boss he couldn’t have earned his income so he owes me some of it, or because I maintained my property beautifully my neighbor should pay me a percentage of the great price he got when he sold his property.

In family courts, equity is based upon a presumption of contribution usually founded upon nothing more than having “been there”. It is hard to stomach the notion that one person has worked while the other was supported financially (and presumably) emotionally and that their contributions to the “assets” can be seen as equal (based in equity) – when in fact, and technically at law, they were not. It is my view that alimony, in the age of equality, is more akin to theft."

Slavery...not a new concept

2008-02-13T08:35:00.002-05:00

Did you know that when a cop "walks a beat" he or she is doing the same police work that the southern states did to suppress potential slave rebellions?

After the Stono slave rebellion in 1739, scared white people created militias organized around night patrols that roamed the South Carolina countryside. White men of military age were ordered to patrol "a beat" whose express mission was to quell any slave ambitions. Slaves found outside at night were beaten, stripped of goods, and killed.

The patrols were seen as a social activity for white people. Since it was compulsory, poor whites got a chance to mix with rich whites. Often, there was drinking and socializing.

When no slaves could be found on the road, whites would storm the slave's cabins. They would seize anything that could be used as a weapon. So, black powder, shot, rope, some farm tools, and books, were all taken. Then the slaves were stripped, beaten, or whipped.

Sound a lot like what cops do in our inner cities.

Sound like a good deal, to me.....

2008-02-11T11:10:00.000-05:00

Paul McCartney married Heather Mills in 2001 and separated from her in 2006. So..um...thats a 5 year marriage. Anyone whose been through a breakup will tell you the relationship was over long before the announcement. So, lets break it down.

Year 1 - Honeymoon phase. Everything is good. Sex is great. Everyone goes out of their way for the other.

Year 2 - The real people emerge. If everything is ok...see year number one. If not, sex...once a month. Petty unresolved differences rule the day.

Year 3 - In a bad marriage, this is when the fights start. People shut down and stay and start making the plan to move on. Lots of make up/break up stuff during this year.

Year 4 - If things are bad...this is the year of the affair. No kids? People get their cup filled somewhere else.

Year 5 - Exposure and the end of it.

For this five year experience, Heather Mills wants $100 million dollars of Paul's money. Tell me now, why this is equitable? Of course Paul has more money then he could ever spend, so whats the big deal here? He's estimated to be worth over a billion dollars. The question is really, why does Heather think she's entitled to this money? She should be paying him for riding his coattails for the last 4 years of the marriage.

This will end my rant for the minute.

Gender Wars

2008-02-09T21:52:00.000-05:00

I think I've figured it out.

For the last decade or so we've been engaged in some sort of war, and everyone knows that wars are profitable. Ask any Halliburton employee.

It's a fact that William Randolph Hearst promoted the Spanish American War with the express purpose to sell newspapers. The funny thing is that Hearst wasn't the only one to benefit. The waves of government contractors who supplied the war, the feds who advanced their careers due to the additional work load, the hoards of recruits that were needed to fight the war, all benefited.

Since then, we've fought (or are fighting);

WWII
The Korean War
The Vietnam War
The Civil Rights War
The War on Drugs
The War on Terrorism
The Cold War

Everyone of these wars are about the perceived differences between people. Get two groups of people suspicious of the other and you've got a problem. Incentivise one of those groups and you've got a problem that can't be solved. Thus, I bring you.....

THE GENDER WAR

That's right, its women against men and men against women. Here's whats happened. We've got a generation that has been educated to believe that men are all violent, stupid, Neanderthals, whose only purpose is to impregnate women, and then slave for them the rest of their lives. Let's examine all who benefit here.

Title IV-d provides millions of dollars to every state on a sliding scale dependent on the number of people it collects child support money from. You can guess which side of the gender war is paying here. The very people you voted into office are fleecing you.

Attorneys. Yep, along with the entire judicial system. An attorney told me that there's an unspoken saying in the industry. "God bless the fool that sues my client". The more court cases, the more judges, staff, court buildings, jails, and you guessed it....attorney's.

Friends of the court. You know them. Child custody evaluators, psychologists, guardian ad litems, expert witnesses. All get paid from the "respondent" or the "defendant."

Friend of the Court....sure.

2008-02-08T09:53:00.000-05:00

These are the kinds of people typically called, Friends of the Court. No wonder, men get the children taken from them.

"An Arlington County victims advocate and mother of twins pleaded guilty yesterday to threatening to torture and kill her ex-husband's wife and two toddlers after she found the woman on a local online chat group for young mothers.

Jennie L. Altieri, 36, a victims services specialist at the Washington-based National Center for Victims of Crime, admitted that she sent six handwritten, anonymous letters to her ex-husband's wife, threatening to kill her and the couple's two young sons in a "vicious, sexual" way, according to the prosecution. She also sent letters to associates of the wife, calling her a child molester.

Altieri faced up to 10 years in prison on two felony counts of making threats of death or bodily injury. She was sentenced to enter a therapy program for inmates, Arlington's Addiction Corrections Treatment, which lasts four to six months. Once she completes the program, she will be on supervised probation for three years."

Constitutional Rights tossed like yesterdays leftovers

2008-01-28T02:16:00.000-05:00

We had our pre-trial hearing about two weeks ago. If you forgot, I'm appealing the alimony order. I waited in the lobby with my and my ex's atty. The judge came out, introduced himself and requested to speak with the two atty's only. I thought he wanted to lay the ground rules and invite me in after. No such luck, he conducted the whole thing without me! I know I'm paying for representation, but I didn't concede my right to be party to the hearing.

My atty came out of the hearing, and told me she made an offer on my behalf, but nothing came of it. She said the next step was that she had to call the judge on 2/6. I guess to schedule the trial.

I think the courts simply try and get away with what ever they can. If you question them, then you may go to jail on a contempt charge.

Everyone wants me to just accept that I have to pay alimony

2008-01-12T14:14:00.000-05:00

I'm ranting..

My friends, my girlfriend...either they don't really understand the long term effects of this judgment or I'm the one loosing it.

I don't think its a figment of my imagination that people get locked up for not paying alimony.

H. Beatty Chadwick has been behind bars for 13 years! My girlfriend said, "well, the laws are different in other states. You don't know if thats going to happen to you!"

My friends say...yeah, but so and so has to pay alimony and he never pays it and nothing has happened to him. I tell them I'm on the hook for more then half my pay...forever...and they just don't seem to get it. It's like ok...next?

I told one friend that all this amounts to is extortion. Her reply was that "if the judge says it, then its legal extortion." I don't even think she meant it sarcastically.

I don't want to roll over and barely be able to support my kids while my ex is able to retire at the grand old age of 40.

Men are stupid #2

2008-01-11T21:43:00.000-05:00

Yoplait commercial.

Wife on the phone gabbing with a friend about the "key lime pie, strawberry danish, lemon meringue danish, etc" that she ate on her current diet....while husband searches through the fridge looking for goodies. All the while the only thing in the fridge is Yoplait Yogurt.

Wife then swivels around and says "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?!"
Husband ends up looking like an eight year old.

Quote of the day

2008-01-02T09:45:00.000-05:00

From Ronald Reagan's Farewell Address to the American People - 1989

“…man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.”
Ronald Reagan

debtors prison?

2007-12-30T16:26:00.000-05:00

H. Beatty Chadwick 72, retired attorney, still in jail after 13 years for contempt.

Yes. You read that right. This is what happens when the court decides they are right and you are wrong. This guy has been in jail for 13 years with no trial! Fuck habeas corpus!

...and your murder/suicide for today:

2007-12-30T11:30:00.001-05:00

Apparent murder-suicide in Brooklyn Center

December 26, 2007

BROOKLYN CENTER, Minn. (AP) - An apparent murder-suicide early on Christmas morning has left a family "just devastated," a victim advocate said Tuesday.

Police in Brooklyn Center said they found two people dead in a home about 1:45 a.m. Tuesday. They aren't releasing the victims' identities or many details, except to say the public is not in danger.

Michael Jones, director of the Minnesota Parent-Child Advocacy Center in Minneapolis, told the Star Tribune the incident involved a married couple, Andrew Lee Wells and Jacqueline Wells.

Jones, who was speaking for the mother and uncle of Andrew Lee Wells, said he died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound. He said Jacqueline Wells also died of a gunshot wound.

"This is the greatest tragedy that can happen to anybody's family," Jones said. "It doesn't get any more personal than this."

Jones said he didn't know what led to the incident. Jacqueline Wells apparently had four teenage children from a previous relationship but it didn't appear any were hurt, Jones said. They weren't home during the incident but two came home to find the bodies, he told the newspaper.

A neighbor, Stephanie High, said the entire neighborhood was stunned.

"They were wonderful people," she said. "They always waved 'hi' and 'bye,' and sat out on their front steps."

Speaking on behalf of Andrew Wells' relatives, Jones said, "They are just devastated by the events that took place. They want the community's prayers and support for the children, and that's the focus of their concern at this point. They can recover from this, but it's going to be a long and painful deal."

Deadbeat dad roundups end in Ohio

2007-12-30T11:25:00.000-05:00

Looks like one state has realized the futility of arresting people who are behind on their child support.

This was on the AP wire 12/27/207:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - The state says it's ending a decade-old program that rounded up deadbeat dads one day or week a year to draw attention to people late with their child support payments.

The Department of Job and Family Services says people behind in their payments don't always deserve to be handcuffed on TV.

The state also has no evidence either way that the publicized arrests generated overdue money for children.

Sheriff's departments worried that disgruntled parents who knew a roundup was coming might harm officers trying to serve warrants.

Counties say they couldn't always pull together the employees to administer the arrests.

The state still arrests thousands of people a year for failing to pay child support and those behind-the-scenes efforts won't end.

I'm in my mid forty's

2007-12-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

Is it me or is the media's definition of the male 28-36 demographic, idiotic? Or better, have you seen the commercials on Comedy Central for the new Kenny -v- Spenny show? What a coupla losers.

Men are stupid

2007-12-28T23:52:00.001-05:00

Did you see the Fidelity commercial?

The husband and wife sit on a couch while the husband talks about managing the "turnover." His wife corrects him and says "rollover." Then she admonishes him by saying that the bank handled everything and would have signed his name for him if they could. Then she says..."you couldn't get the dog to rollover if you wanted too."

"This Christmas"

2007-12-28T23:08:00.000-05:00

My girlfriend has been wanting to see this movie with Chris Brown, Regina King, DelRoy Lindo, Edris Alba, and a few others. It's your typically updated xmas fair. A family at xmas time deals with the foibles of life. There's the slutty daughter, the wayward son who seems to be just a few steps ahead of disaster, the upward bound college student, etc.. Anyway, there's a scene in the movie where one of the daughters finds out that her husband has been cheating on her. She encourages him to take a shower, and before he gets out of the shower she sprays baby oil all over the bathroom floor! You can almost feel his naked ass hit those tiles when he steps onto the oily floor. Thats when the wife takes a belt and begins whipping him. She must have hit him ten times with that leather belt.

In a perfect world, that dude would have had her arrested and locked up for assault on a domestic violence charge. But you know that would never happen. HE'S A MAN!! And men can't claim domestic violence.

Don't get me wrong. The guy was an ass and clearly shouldn't have been cheating on his wife, but women cheat as much as men do (if not more) and if a man even raises his voice in the direction of his wife he can go to jail on a DV beef.

My problem here is that once again, we see the media make it ok for a woman to beat up on a man.

Suicide...

2007-12-26T10:08:00.000-05:00

I watched a movie yesterday. If you're even a little depressed, its not for you. It was called "The Bridge" you can check out the trailer here.

Seasons Greetings

2007-12-21T10:41:00.000-05:00

The hope of a merry Christmas goes out to all the Dads that are separated from their children. I pray that your relationships are healed and made whole. Please be comforted during these times. We can all pray that things will change and get better.

murder -- suicide

2007-12-17T09:28:00.001-05:00

Did you know that there is a murder/suicide in the country almost every day? And that the majority of them are related to alimony and child support/child custody problems.

The feminist left would have you believe that the men who perpetrate these crimes are out-of-control whack jobs that obviously need to be castrated and incarcerated. What makes a regular blue collar guy snap...and kill someone? These guys kill their own children! Is there a murderer hiding in every man facing divorce or child support payments.

During the infancy of this country, familicide was not that all uncommon. Typically committed by slaves.

I am not advocating anyone should kill another. There has got to be a better way.

I'M NO DEADBEAT DAD!!!

2007-12-14T11:06:00.000-05:00

Just to be clear..if thats possible. We have a 50/50 custody. My kids are with me two weeks out of the month, every month. I cook their meals, buy their clothes, take them to school, go to their basketball games, clean their home, and wipe their tears.

I pay for their activities, buy them shoes and sneakers, make sure they are bathed and healthy.

Because of me they have a place to live, grow, study and prosper. I am the definition of manhood.

NOBODY CAN CALL ME A DEADBEAT.

But they try. I'm defined by the State of Maryland as the NON-CUSTODIAL Parent --BECAUSE I pay child support. Last I checked, my children spent as much time with me as they did with her, yet I'm defined as not having custody.

only in the movies...

2007-12-14T10:50:00.001-05:00

I guess I've been remiss in letting you know what happened with the appeal and motion for injunctive relief. While the judge has nothing to say about the appeal, the motion for injunctive relief goes to him. I didn't know this. Kinda like begging the overseer to not beat you while the master considers your compliant against him....right.

So, how did this end up? Thats right. The judge denied the injunction and reaffirmed everything else. Despite telling the fool that I'm scraping by now and thankful to god that I can keep the mortgage paid. This guy puts me and the kids in a position that has my house foreclosed on in 30 days.

The family court would rather I turn over 53% of my earnings to my ex and have my house foreclosed on then allow me to continue to support my children. All this in the name of equity. I wonder how my kids would feel about that.

a note I sent to 20/20

2007-11-30T23:19:00.001-05:00

How bout' a story on the 150k men and women who are incarcerated for "contempt of court" for non-payment of a civil order (ie: alimony and child support)? Our country has created a debtors prison in violation of the 13th amendment. While the constitution clearly states that citizens cannot be made to give the product of their labor without compensation to another under the threat of imprisonment, thats exactly what our government does. They lock people for nonpayment of alimony.

Due to no-fault divorce laws, monetarily motivated spouses can unilaterally end their marriages. Using the courts power (augmented by domestic violence laws) the targeted spouse is summarily evicted from the marital home, forcibly torn from the children, and commanded give up 60-70% of their income for the next two to three decades.

The long standing stereotype of the old businessman stranding his aging wife in favor of his young secretary, has been replaced with the middle income man struggling to pay the mortgage on the house after the wife has kicked him out and moved in the kids soccer coach.

Divorce has become a trillion dollar business. Why is it that middle income people are spending six figures to end a civil union? Easy, the courts are run by lawyers. The cost of divorce pays for lawyers vacations, elaborate homes, cars, and other luxury's. For them Divorce is a good thing.

Then there is a little something called Title IV-d. A federal entitlement that states get dependent on the number of people who they have to process for child support actions. It's easy, the more people paying child support, the more federal dollars that states get. Kinda like telling the IRS the more money they collect in taxes the bigger a bonus management will get this year.

The end result of these policies are thousands of men and women who despite having worked hard to achieve the American Dream, have lost their homes, their savings, their children, and in some cases their lives.

It's a good day

2007-11-29T22:05:00.000-05:00

I'm having a good day.

Had three drinks last night...

2007-11-28T11:02:00.000-05:00

So...I got my ex's reply to my motion to appeal. Her atty must be tired. They rolled over on one thing, and crafted a completely emotional argument to rebut the rest. That's kinda strange since, my understanding is that the appeals court looks to the letter of the law in its decisions. Maybe the strategy will work, maybe it wont.

The court seems to only be leaving me two choices.

1. Pay the best I can, and eventually end up in jail.
2. Go underground.

What would you do?

ah...yeah

2007-11-26T17:01:00.000-05:00

So...I'm writing this blog see....

Sounds like a joke.
My girlfriend is mad a me. Something I did...or said. I don't even know what.

Ok....so you need to know who I am right?
Divorced father of three. About to stretched out on the alimony rack. They don't give you any choices. You pay or go to jail. Folks have opted for whats behind door number three, but it's usually kinda messy and they don't come back.

Whats a brother ta do?